Frank did not answer; but he thought that he had suffered sufficiently for his thoughtlessness, without being taunted with it. He tried to persuade Jack not to rob any more birds' nests; but Jack only laughed at him, and told him to run home to his sister, like a good little boy. Frank was the oldest, and he felt rather vexed at the sneering way in which Jack spoke; but he made no angry answer. At school time, Frank and Fanny went to school again; but Jack played truant, as he had done in the morning, and went down in the meadows, with the boys, whom he had told Frank he was going with. Miss Norton asked Frank, if he knew what had kept Jack away from school all day, and he repeated to her, as nearly as he could, the conversation which had taken place between them that noon. The next morning, when Jack came into school rather late, Miss Norton called him up to her, and told him to read out loud, this piece, from the Village Reader. "HAVE YOU SEEN MY DARLING NESTLINGS?" A Mother robin cried: "I cannot, cannot find them, Though I've sought them far and wide "I left them well this morning, When I went to seek their food; But I found upon returning, I'd a nest, without a brood. "Oh, have you naught to tell me To ease my aching breast, About my tender offspring, That I left within my nest? "I have called them in the bushes, And the rolling stream beside: Yet they come not at my bidding And I fear they all have died." "I can tell you all about them," Said a little wanton boy, "For 'twas I that had the pleasure Your nestlings to destroy. "But I did not think their mother Her little ones would miss, Or ever come to hail me With a wailing sound like this. "I did not know your bosom Was formed to suffer woe, And mourn your murdered offspring, Or I had not grieved you so. "I ever shall remember, The plaintive sounds I've heard; And never'll kill a nestling To pain another bird." Jack was very much confused when he commenced reading. As he read on, he looked more and more ashamed, and when he finished, his face was almost crimson. Miss Norton was glad to see this, for she thought that it showed, that he was not entirely hardened; so she suffered him to go to his seat, without saying any more to him, hoping that this would be a sufficient reproof. Before school was out, at noon, however, all Jack's mortification had vanished, and in its stead, he indulged in very angry feelings towards Frank for he was sure that Frank had told of him. "I'll fix him," he said to his seat-mate, Harry Day, a merry little fellow, whose roguish blue eyes looked quite capable of assisting where there was any mischief going on. "What'll you do?" said Harry.